Choi Captures Lead By Staying on the Straight and Narrow

KJ Choi has never before led a major championship, but will not be treading entirely unfamiliar ground when he sets out with a one-shot lead over Greg Norman in the final pair at Royal Birkdale this afternoon.

A year ago at Carnoustie the Korean partnered Sergio García in the last group for the third round after finishing his second round two shots behind the Spaniard. On that damp Saturday his challenge faded, but his charge to the head of the leaderboard last night demonstrated that his performance on the toughest course on the Open rota - he eventually finished eighth - was no one-off.

Aided by Andy Prodger, one of the most experienced bag men on the circuit and himself an Open winner after helping Nick Faldo to the 1987 Open, Choi took advantage of the day's best conditions to card a three-under-par 67, a score bettered only by Camilo Villegas' freakish 65 earlier in the day. Whereas Villegas relied on a rash of birdies over the final five holes, Choi's score was compiled in more methodical fashion. The Korean has made his name and his fortune on the parkland layouts of the PGA tour but he has a natural affinity for the seaside game, and it was not lost on the large gallery.

Having a build congruent with his teenage prowess as a weightlifter and a simple, functional swing, he drives the ball admirably straight, a prerequisite for success this week, and he made only one error, a bogey at the 1st, against four birdies. Three of them came on a back nine which was as close to stress-free as is possible on a layout of this difficulty. He missed only one fairway and one green in regulation on the way home, and back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 gave the round an emphatic finish greeted with cries of "Come on the Choi-ster" from his growing band of supporters.

Choi thanked the galleries for their support after what he said was his best round in a decade as an Open competitor. "I think this was definitely my best round in a British Open because all my shots worked. My swing was great and my putting was working the way I wanted too," he said. "Today the fans' support was really wonderful and I got a lot of motivation from that."

Choi is based in Houston, Texas, home to one of the US's largest Korean communities, but in his homeland his performance this week will have caused huge excitement. He is Korea's most famous sportsman and has been tipped for some time to become the first Asian to win a major championship. Prodger certainly thinks so. "He can definitely win a major. He can win here because it suits his game. I have been banging it into him to aim for the middle of the greens, and so far it seems to be working."